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Godzilla vs. Gigan
Cinema Shares |releasedate=March 12, 1972 |rating=G PG |budget=¥???,???,??? |boxoffice=¥???,???,??? |runningtime=89 minutes 88 minutes |designs=SoshingekiGoji SoshingekiAngira ShodaiGigan ShodaiGhido |website= |previous=''Godzilla vs. Hedorah'' |next=''Godzilla vs. Megalon'' }}Godzilla vs. Gigan is a 1972 produced by Toho Company Ltd., and the twelfth installment in the ''Godzilla'' series as well as the Showa series. The film was released to Japanese theaters on March 12, 1972. Plot Giant cockroaches from a dying Earth-like planet in the Space Hunter Nebula M plot to colonize the Earth and destroy all cities to make it more "peaceful" (peace and technology being the themes of this film). They inhabit the bodies of recently deceased humans, thus resembling them, and work as the staff of the Japan branch of the peace-themed theme park World Children's Land (based in Switzerland), the centerpiece being the Godzilla-shaped "Godzilla Tower". The plan of the Nebula M aliens is to use the space monsters King Ghidorah and Gigan (guided by two "Action Signal Tapes") to wipe out civilization. A cartoonist named Gengo Kotaka stumbles onto their plan after being hired as a concept artist for them. When Gengo and his friends play one of the incomprehensible Action Signal Tapes (which he obtained by accident) on their tape player, only Godzilla and Anguirus hear it from afar and catch on to this evil plot as well. Godzilla sends Anguirus to the source of the sound to make sure nothing's wrong, but once Anguirus arrives at Tokyo Bay, the Japanese military, having no clue on the monster's intentions, drives him away. Anguirus goes back to Monster Island, and Godzilla then follows him back to the city. Both monsters try to save the Earth from King Ghidorah and Gigan, though the Nebula M aliens plan to lure Godzilla into a shocking fatal trap via placing an extremely powerful laser cannon inside the Godzilla Tower's mouth and firing it at Godzilla. Once the tower is destroyed by the main human characters, Godzilla and Anguirus drive Gigan and King Ghidorah into a retreat back into space and saved the world. Staff Cast Appearances Monsters *Godzilla (SoshingekiGoji) *Anguirus (SoshingekiAngira) *Gigan (ShodaiGigan) *King Ghidorah (ShodaiGhido) *Mothra (Stock Footage, erroneous) *Rodan (Stock Footage) *Kamacuras (Stock Footage) *Kumonga (Stock Footage) *Gorosaurus (Stock Footage) *Minilla (Stock Footage) *Gaira (Stock Footage, erroneous) *Shukra (Photograph) *Mamagon (Photograph) Weapons *Type 66 Maser Cannon Vehicles *F86F Sabre *Hybrid Tank (Stock Footage) *M24 Chaffee Tank (Stock Footage) *M4A3E8 Sherman Tank (Stock Footage) *Missile Launcher Truck *Red Bamboo Fighter Jet (Stock Footage, mistake) *SAR-1 (Stock Footage) *Support Helicopter (Stock Footage) *Type 61 Tank *Type M3A1 (Stock Footage) Locations *Godzilla Tower Races *M Space Hunter Nebula Aliens Alternate titles *''Earth Destruction Directive: Godzilla vs. Gigan'' (Literal Japanese title) *''Godzilla on Monster Island'' (United States) *''War of the Monsters'' (England) *''Galien, the Monster of the Galaxies Attacks the Earth'' (Galien, el monstruo de las galaxias ataca la Tierra; Spain) *''Godzilla Against Gigan'' (Godzilla contra Gigan; Mexico; Godzilla kontra Gigan; Poland) *''Earth Objective: Mission Apocalypse'' (Objectif Terre: Mission Apocalypse; France) *''Frankenstein's Hell Brood'' (Frankensteins Höllenbrut; Germany) *''Godzilla Versus the Giants'' (Godzilla contro i giganti; Italy) *''The Planet of Godzilla'' (La planète de Godzilla; French Belgium; De planeet van Godzilla; Dutch Belgium) *''Godzilla Against the Giants'' (Godzilla devlere karsi; Turkey) Theatrical releases *Japan - March 12, 1972 *United States - August 1977 *South Korea - April 4, 1972 *Portugal - October 12, 1972 *France - 1973 *Germany - January 11, 1973 *Italy - 1973 *Belgium - 1973 *Poland - January 1978 *Spain - April 1980 U.S. release In 1977, Cinema Shares released an edited cut of the international version of Godzilla vs. Gigan in North America. This version was re-titled Godzilla on Monster Island despite the fact that about a minute of the film actually takes place on Monster Island. A few edits were made from the international print, although Cinema Shares made several cuts to obtain a G-rating from the MPAA: *The title card reads "Godzilla on Monster Island" and the laser beam effect from the Japanese credits sequence is gone. *Gengo calls his girlfriend "a hard bitch" under his breath. Cinema Shares muted the entire soundtrack when the word "bitch" is muttered. *Two scenes of Godzilla bleeding from Gigan's attacks are trimmed. The scene where Gigan cuts Anguirus in his snout with his abdominal saw is also edited out. However, the scenes afterwards, despite having Godzilla and Anguirus covered in blood from their wounds, were unchanged. *While Godzilla and Anguirus swim away at the end of the movie, Godzilla turns and blasts the camera with his radioactive breath, lifted from the opening of the film. The energy beam fills the camera, over which the words "THE END" are superimposed. *Perhaps the most significant change in the English-language edit of the film occurs when Godzilla and Anguirus talk. In the original Japanese version, speech bubbles appear out of the monsters' mouths and display their dialogue. In the international version, voice actor Ted Thomas, the producer of the English-language soundtrack, recorded actual English dialogue for the scene, while the speech bubbles were removed. This alteration was retained in Cinema Shares' version of the film. Godzilla On Monster Island was frequently shown in television syndication throughout the 80's, and it aired several times on the Sci-Fi Channel before being replaced by the widescreen international version in 2002. In 1988, New World Pictures picked up the home video rights to Godzilla vs. Gigan and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Toho provided New World Video with prints of the international versions, now titled Godzilla vs. Gigan and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, respectively. The dubbing was the same, but both films were now restored to their full length. These versions were subsequently re-released on video in 1992 by Starmaker Video, in 1997 by Anchor Bay and in 2004 by TriStar Pictures. The TriStar DVDs feature newly remastered prints of Toho's original international versions along with the original Japanese audio. Kraken Releasing also released Godzilla vs. Gigan, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and Godzilla vs. Hedorah on DVD and Blu-ray in 2014. The versions of the films included in these releases are identical to those from the TriStar DVDs. Box office When Godzilla vs. Gigan was released to Japanese theaters on March 12, 1972, it received an attendance of 1,780,000. Reception This movie is often criticized due to its slow pacing, heavy use of stock footage, and an inconsistent tone. Many fans though enjoy the monster tag team battles, stock use of Akira Ifukube's music, the introduction of Gigan and the return of King Ghidorah and Anguirus. Home media releases (2004)[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002V7OEC Amazon.com - Godzilla vs. Gigan (1977)] *Released: October 19, 2004 *Region: Region 1 *Language: Japanese, English, French (Subtitled) *Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen *Other Details: 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 89 minutes run time, 1 disc, Japanese and international versions Toho (2004) *Released: 2004 *Region: Region 1 *Language: Japanese Madman (2006) *Released: 2006 *Region: Region 4 Kraken Releasing (2014)[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002V7OEC Amazon.com - Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)] *Released: May 6, 2014 *Region: Region 1 *Language: Japanese, English (Dubbed) *Format: Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC, Widescreen *Other Details: 1.77:1 aspect ratio, 90 minutes run time, 1 disc, Japanese version Kraken Releasing (2014)[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00I462XLG Amazon.com - Godzilla vs. Gigan Blu-ray (1972)] *Blu-ray *Released: May 6, 2014 *Language: Japanese, English (Dubbed) *Format: Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, NTSC, Widescreen *Other Details: 1.77:1 aspect ratio, 90 minutes run time, 1 disc, Japanese version Trivia *This film's score is composed almost entirely of stock music from previous scores composed by Akira Ifukube. A new song, "Godzilla March," composed by Kunio Miyauchi and sung by Susumu Ishikawa, is played over the end credits. *Tomoko Tomoe was portrayed by actress Yuriko Hishimi, who is also known for portraying the character Anne Yuri in Ultraseven. *This was Haruo Nakajima's final time playing Godzilla, a role he had played since 1954. * Gigan is the first monster to make Godzilla visibly bleed. The previous Godzilla special effects director, Eiji Tsuburaya, had been extremely opposed to having the monsters bleed in the films, as he did not wish for the series' younger viewers to see such graphic images. After Tsuburaya's death, Teruyoshi Nakano took over as the head of the special effects department, and many of the Godzilla films he worked on, including Godzilla vs. Gigan, included scenes of monster bloodshed. *This is the second time Anguirus visibly bleeds in a film. The first is in Godzilla Raids Again when Godzilla bites down on Anguirus' throat. The third instance of Anguirus bleeding occurs in Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla when Fake Godzilla breaks Anguirus' jaw. *Due to the slashed budget for this film, special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano used stock footage from previous Godzilla films (as well as some other Toho sci-fi films) for many of the special effects sequences. Clips from the Godzilla films Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Destroy All Monsters, and Godzilla vs. Hedorah, as well as ''Rodan'' and War of the Gargantuas, can be seen in this film. *The Hybrid Tank, Type M3A1, SAR-1, and Support Helicopter are among the vehicles that appear through stock footage in this film. However, those four vehicles did not exist until the events of Destroy All Monsters took place in the future. This oversight would be repeated in Godzilla vs. Megalon. *During the scenes in which Godzilla and Anguirus talk to each other in the English-dubbed version, it sounds as if Godzilla is calling Anguirus "Angilla." *''Godzilla vs. Gigan'' is one of three Godzilla movies in which the monsters talk at some point. The other two are Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, where the monsters' dialogue is translated by the Shobijin, and All Monsters Attack, where Minilla speaks inside of a boy's dream. In Toho's international version of Godzilla vs. Gigan, the monsters' dialogue is as follows: :Scene One: :Godzilla: Hey, Angilas! :Anguirus: What do you want? *crawls to Godzilla* :Godzilla: Somethin' funny's going on, you better check! *Motions his left arm forward* :Anguirus: Oh, yeah! *crawls away* :Godzilla: Hurry up! :Scene Two: :*Godzilla and Anguirus swimming towards Japan* :Godzilla: Hey, Angilas, come on! There's a lot of trouble ahead. *points his hand forward in a straight direction* That way! :Anguirus: Okay! References Do you like Godzilla vs. Gigan? Yes! No. Kind of. de:Frankensteins Höllenbrut es:Godzilla vs. Gigan Category:1970s films Category:Japanese films Category:Showa era - Films (Godzilla franchise)